Re: [PATCH 11/17] Fix a possible backwards warp of kvmclock

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On 06/15/2010 10:34 AM, Zachary Amsden wrote:
Kernel time, which advances in discrete steps may progress much slower
than TSC.  As a result, when kvmclock is adjusted to a new base, the
apparent time to the guest, which runs at a much higher, nsec scaled
rate based on the current TSC, may have already been observed to have
a larger value (kernel_ns + scaled tsc) than the value to which we are
setting it (kernel_ns + 0).

We must instead compute the clock as potentially observed by the guest
for kernel_ns to make sure it does not go backwards.

@@ -455,6 +457,8 @@ struct kvm_vcpu_stat {
  	u32 hypercalls;
  	u32 irq_injections;
  	u32 nmi_injections;
+	u32 tsc_overshoot;
+	u32 tsc_ahead;
  };

Please don't add new stats, instead add tracepoints which can also be observed as stats.

But does this really merit exposing? What would one do with this information?

  	struct kvm_vcpu_arch *vcpu =&v->arch;
  	void *shared_kaddr;
  	unsigned long this_tsc_khz;
+	s64 kernel_ns, max_kernel_ns;
+	u64 tsc_timestamp;

  	if ((!vcpu->time_page))
  		return 0;

-	this_tsc_khz = get_cpu_var(cpu_tsc_khz);
-	put_cpu_var(cpu_tsc_khz);
+	/*
+	 * The protection we require is simple: we must not be preempted from
+	 * the CPU between our read of the TSC khz and our read of the TSC.
+	 * Interrupt protection is not strictly required, but it does result in
+	 * greater accuracy for the TSC / kernel_ns measurement.
+	 */
+	local_irq_save(flags);
+	this_tsc_khz = __get_cpu_var(cpu_tsc_khz);
+	kvm_get_msr(v, MSR_IA32_TSC,&tsc_timestamp);

That's a slow path, since it has to go through kvm_get_msr()'s if tree. Could use its own accessor.

But this isn't introduced by this patch, so it can be fixed by another.

+	ktime_get_ts(&ts);
+	monotonic_to_bootbased(&ts);
+	kernel_ns = timespec_to_ns(&ts);
+	local_irq_restore(flags);
+
  	if (unlikely(this_tsc_khz == 0)) {
  		kvm_request_guest_time_update(v);
  		return 1;
  	}

+	/*
+	 * Time as measured by the TSC may go backwards when resetting the base
+	 * tsc_timestamp.  The reason for this is that the TSC resolution is
+	 * higher than the resolution of the other clock scales.  Thus, many
+	 * possible measurments of the TSC correspond to one measurement of any
+	 * other clock, and so a spread of values is possible.  This is not a
+	 * problem for the computation of the nanosecond clock; with TSC rates
+	 * around 1GHZ, there can only be a few cycles which correspond to one
+	 * nanosecond value, and any path through this code will inevitably
+	 * take longer than that.  However, with the kernel_ns value itself,
+	 * the precision may be much lower, down to HZ granularity.  If the
+	 * first sampling of TSC against kernel_ns ends in the low part of the
+	 * range, and the second in the high end of the range, we can get:
+	 *
+	 * (TSC - offset_low) * S + kns_old>  (TSC - offset_high) * S + kns_new
+	 *
+	 * As the sampling errors potentially range in the thousands of cycles,
+	 * it is possible such a time value has already been observed by the
+	 * guest.  To protect against this, we must compute the system time as
+	 * observed by the guest and ensure the new system time is greater.
+ 	 */
+	max_kernel_ns = 0;
+	if (vcpu->hv_clock.tsc_timestamp) {
+		max_kernel_ns = vcpu->last_guest_tsc -
+				vcpu->hv_clock.tsc_timestamp;
+		max_kernel_ns = pvclock_scale_delta(max_kernel_ns,
+				    vcpu->hv_clock.tsc_to_system_mul,
+				    vcpu->hv_clock.tsc_shift);
+		max_kernel_ns += vcpu->last_kernel_ns;
+	}
+
  	if (unlikely(vcpu->hw_tsc_khz != this_tsc_khz)) {
-		kvm_set_time_scale(this_tsc_khz,&vcpu->hv_clock);
+		kvm_get_time_scale(NSEC_PER_SEC / 1000, this_tsc_khz,
+				&vcpu->hv_clock.tsc_shift,
+				&vcpu->hv_clock.tsc_to_system_mul);
  		vcpu->hw_tsc_khz = this_tsc_khz;
  	}

-	/* Keep irq disabled to prevent changes to the clock */
-	local_irq_save(flags);
-	kvm_get_msr(v, MSR_IA32_TSC,&vcpu->hv_clock.tsc_timestamp);
-	ktime_get_ts(&ts);
-	monotonic_to_bootbased(&ts);
-	local_irq_restore(flags);
+	if (max_kernel_ns>  kernel_ns) {
+		s64 overshoot = max_kernel_ns - kernel_ns;
+		++v->stat.tsc_ahead;
+		if (overshoot>  NSEC_PER_SEC / HZ) {
+			++v->stat.tsc_overshoot;
+			if (printk_ratelimit())
+				pr_debug("ns overshoot: %lld\n", overshoot);
+		}

A tracepoint here would allow recording both the number of overshoots and the value of the overshoot. But I don't think this is of much use day-to-day.

--
error compiling committee.c: too many arguments to function

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